Month: October 2019

18 Arrested on Capitol Hill Protesting Trump Refugee Policy, but where was the Media?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

***Update***  I just went back after a few hours to see if any national media has picked up the news, and nope, nothing yet. A few more bits of news by the protesters themselves, like this Catholic news outfit crowing that the Catholics (not to be left out!) were there too!

Okay, so yesterday was the big protest day for Church World Service and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) so I figured surely there would be gobs of media reports on the success of their anti-Trump protest especially since they succeeded in getting arrested!

Where is the WaPo?  Where is CNN?  Anyone see any coverage?

By the way, who comes up with this hokey stuff?

The only news I found so far comes from organizers Amnesty International and another Lefty outfit called Common Dreams.

Is this goofy or what! That is the Rev. McCullough of Church World Service on the far left. He pulls in an annual salary and benefits package of nearly $300,000 from the quasi-government CWS. Looks like Anne Richard, Obama’s refugee chief next to him, and then of course CAIR’s Nihad Awad fourth from the left.

Here is Amnesty:

In response to the Trump Administration’s continued assault on the U.S. refugee resettlement program, 18 leaders from the nation’s leading faith and human rights organizations, as well as a former State Department official, were arrested on Capitol Hill as part of the first ever act of civil disobedience in the name of refugee resettlement. Those 18 arrested represented the 18,000 refugee cap set by the Trump administration – the lowest in the history of the resettlement program.
Continue reading here if you want to see what each of the protesters had to say.  If not, see who sponsored the publicity stunt:
Today’s protest was cosponsored by: Church World Service, Sahloul, Franciscan Action Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Center for Victims of Torture, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, Amnesty International USA, Disciples Refugee and Immigration Ministries, American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, Congregations Action Network, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, Sojourners, NOVA Friends of Refugees/One Journey.
Where is HIAS I wondered, they usually love to protest in Washington?
The large gathering…..
For more information and more photos, visit Common Dreams.

Will the President Stand Firm on Determination to Admit 18,000 Refugees this Year?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Any day now, the Administration will send a delegation to the Hill to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the President’s plan to admit a maximum number of 18,000 refugees to the US in FY2020 (the fiscal year began on October 1).

A reminder:  Trump set the level for FY19 at 30,000 and reached that ceiling on September 30th.  An 18,000 ceiling for FY20 would be the lowest in the program’s history.

Over the last couple of weeks there have been dozens and dozens of stories planted throughout America each one showcasing some poor refugee family that would not be reunited if the ceiling is that low.  And, without fail, the articles tell us which of the resettlement contractors had to close subcontractor offices.

Frankly I have read so many of these whiny stories I want to barf.  That said, I would like you to have a look at this one from Twin Falls, Idaho where the local resettlement subcontractor is expected to continue in operation for another year at least and my guess is that is in order to keep a refugee worker flow going to Chobani Yogurt.  See my Twin Falls archive here.

However, when quoting the director of the program there, the reporter, Megan Taros, says something that is not factually correct and I want to mention that to you:

A new executive order issued by President Trump last month that cuts the number of refugees the U.S. will accept from 30,000 to 18,000 this fiscal year threatens the center’s funding. The center receives federal money based on the number of people it takes in. With the new order its approved intake, which is now 140, may drop. Congress will meet on Tuesday to decide what the final nationwide cap on refugees will be.

Maybe the consultation will happen today as the reporter suggests, but Congress will NOT DECIDE ON THE FINAL NATIONWIDE CAP.  Congress’ only role under the Refugee Act of 1980 is a consultation role when it comes to setting the upcoming ceiling/cap (but of course they do appropriate the funding for the President’s plan).

That said, it will be interesting to see if over the last few weeks, the massive media PR campaign (like the one here in Twin Falls)  by the refugee industry has succeeded in getting the administration to up its original number of 18,000!

The article also reminded me to direct you to the Refugee Council USA‘s (lobbyists for the refugee industry) report which lists the subcontractor offices that have been closed since the Trump Administration began reducing the number of refugees being admitted.

Please take a minute and go here to see if an office has closed in your city.

Scroll down to page 23 to see the list.  Here is a screenshot of the first page:

Trump can’t do this alone!

If you want to see the Refugee Program dumped or reformed, you must get involved now where you live.  This is no time to sit back and assume the President is taking care of this.  The refugee industry is extremely well funded and has a massive media network.

As soon as the Trump Administration ends—it will sooner or later—they will be back full steam ahead and they have been laying the ground work with the sob-story news reports spread throughout small city newspapers everywhere.

One thing you can do right now is to send letters or opinion pieces to papers like this one to express the theme I think is most powerful—why aren’t we taking care of our own vulnerable people first?  After all, we the taxpayers are paying for all of this!  Use some statistics or sad stories about your community.

And, it goes without saying, you absolutely must attempt to elect people to local offices that represent your views on the subject of mass migration!  Start now by dogging candidates for the 2020 Elections and press them on their views on immigration!

 

EU Countries Fall Short on Promise to UN to Resettle 50,000 Refugees (over two years!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news….

President Donald Trump admitted 30,000 refugees to the US in the last fiscal year (ended September 30th), but did you know that the entire European Union could not resettle 50,000 in a two year period!

They might argue that well, heck, we have tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands!) arriving illegally and asking for asylum, but so do we!

However, the tone of the international media is consistently anti-US, anti-Donald Trump (aka the meany), yet here is news from Deutsche Welle completely lacking in any snarky tones about European big mouth heads of state NOT MEETING their promised target of 50,000 OVER TWO YEARS!

Not surprisingly, Deutsche Welle blames the inability to get the job done on those pesky right wing citizens.

EU breaks promise of safe passage for 50,000 refugees

European governments, including the German government, have failed to deliver on a pledge to admit 50,000 refugees by this month, DW has learned.

The European Union launched the resettlement program two years ago with a deadline of October 31, 2019. But only 37,520 people have arrived in Europe under the program so far.

You need to know that the UN Secretary General Guterres is a past socialist prez of Portugal. So it is especially humorous to me to see how lousy Portugal is at welcoming refugees!

 

A spokesperson for the European Commission has admitted the target will not be reached by the end of October.

[….]

Germany was one of the countries leading the EU resettlement initiative. Last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly promised to accept 10,200 people under the program. A spokesperson for the country’s Interior Ministry told DW that just 4,800 had arrived so far. He said that the delay in forming a government after German elections in 2017 had led to “complex organizational preparations” for the refugees’ arrival being pushed back.

[….]

The resettlement program is supposed to offer a safe route for some of the most vulnerable people fleeing conflict zones such as Syria and Libya. It is intended as an additional option to the right of asylum.

[….]

EU Commissioner Avramopoulos’ term in office ends on October 31, so the task of coordinating any future EU resettlement program will fall to his successor Margaritis Schinas, who has been at the center of controversy even before starting his job.

Schinas has been appointed under the new title of commissioner “for Protecting our European Way of Life” — a name which critics said mimicked the rhetoric of far-right populists, who claim immigration threatens European values.

Many political parties across Europe have made immigration an election campaign issue, taking a lead from populist parties and the far-right.

[….]

Africa Expert Leonie Jegen https://www.ies.be/user/284

Leonie Jegen, a migration expert at Germany’s Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut, said resettlement was a divisive issue among EU countries.

“Resettlement is something that is not completely off the political agenda, but discourse around refugees has shifted in a negative direction in recent years,” she said.

More here.

See my entire decade-long archive on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ by clicking here.

Ethnic Diversity Weakens Communities Says New Study

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

You all know it intuitively and maybe you’ve actually seen it where you live!

Forcing ethnic diversity on communities destroys cohesiveness, causes mistrust and ultimately destroys the social fabric.

 

Thanks to reader Chaz for this very useful (and politically incorrect) report from Voice of Europe:

“Ethnic diversity not a strength but a weakness”, study says

A new peer-reviewed study by Danish academics published in the Annual Review of Political Science has revealed that ethnic diversity erodes social trust in communities.

University of Copenhagen Professor Peter Thisted Dinesen

The study, conducted by professors at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in Denmark, looked to answer the question of whether “continued immigration and corresponding growing ethnic diversity” had a positive impact on social cohesion, unity, and togetherness.

In short, the study found that “continued immigration and corresponding growing ethnic diversity” exerts the exact opposite effect on society, meaning that it undermines and degrades social cohesion, unity, and togetherness.

Following a meta-analysis of 1,001 estimates from 87 studies from countries from the Western world, researchers found that there was indeed a “statistically significant negative relationship between ethnic diversity and social trust across all studies”.

One of the study’s main researchers, Peter Thisted Dinesen wrote: “To be clear, the overall negative relationship between residential ethnic diversity and social trust is statistically significant and holds up when conditioning on a range of potential confounders and moderators.”

[….]

The study’s findings run counter to the ubiquitous narrative which is constantly repeated on globalist media platforms, at schools and universities, and by EU bureaucrats – namely that ‘Diversity is a Strength’. 

Read it all here.

CAIR, Church World Service, Others, Plan “Civil Disobedience” at US Capitol this Week

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 14 Comments

For new readers, Church World Service is one of the nine federal resettlement contractors with subcontractor office spread throughout the US.  They receive millions of federal dollars amounting to 62% of their entire budget from you—the US taxpayer.  See here.

Here they plan to join the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) on the Capitol steps looking to get arrested in a protest of the President’s refugee policy.

CWS CEO McCullough (annual salary $272,000) must enjoy being arrested. Here he is under arrest for an illegal protest of OBAMA’S DEPORTATION POLICIES in 2014. https://cwsglobal.org/cws-ceo-arrested-at-white-house-protesting-presidents-deportation-policies/

Press release from Amnesty USA:

FAITH LEADERS, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS, AND FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE STAGE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE FOR REFUGEES

On Tuesday, October 15th, 18 protestors–including heads of Amnesty International USA, America’s Voice, CAIR, and Church World Service, as well as a former Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration–will risk arrest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The leaders will wear life vests symbolizing the life-saving refugee resettlement program.

Faith communities, human rights groups, clergy, refugees, and refugee agencies will hold a major action on Capitol Hill as Secretary Pompeo meets with Congress to finalize the administration’s 80% cut to the refugee admissions program.

WHAT: Protest and Civil Disobedience Responding to Decimation of Refugee Resettlement

WHERE: Capitol Lawn Area 9, Constitution and First St NE

WHEN: Tuesday, October 15th at 1:00 PM

DETAILS: 18 protestors–including heads of Amnesty International USA, CAIR, America’s Voice and CWS–wearing life vests symbolizing the lives that could be saved or lost through the resettlement program will risk arrest on the steps of the US Capitol. Supporters will hold 95 photographs of refugees, a nod to the historic average refugee cap of 95,000.

LEADERS RISKING ARREST INCLUDE:

Anne C. Richard, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM)  [She’s back!—ed]

Margaret Huang, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

Rev. John L. McCullough, President and CEO of Church World Service

Nihad Awad, National Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations

From time to time,  and like the Reverend McCullough, CAIR’s Nihad Awad seems to like being arrested on the Hill. Here he is in March of 2018 leading a protest, and, yes, Church World Service is there too. One trick ponies! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/03/07/linda-sarsour-cairs-top-gun-nihad-awad-and-imam-suleiman-among-those-arrested-on-capitol-hill-this-week/

 

Frank Sharry, Founder and Executive Director, America’s Voice

Sarnata Reynolds, former counsel for the House Judiciary Committee


OTHER SPEAKERS:

Sami Muya, a Refugee from Somalia separated from family members by anti-refugee policies

Endnote:  I am so happy to have RRW back so history isn’t forgotten and images like those above can continue to be available for all to see.
You should take a minute and have a look at the church member congregations Church World Service is representing (see this post). Is your church among them?